Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/607

Avicennia.] 



Herbs or shrubs, the stems and branches usually quadrangular. Leaves opposite or whorled, frequently replete with glands containing an aromatic volatile oil; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, irregular, solitary or in small axillary opposite cymes or clusters which are often aggregated into terminal spikes or racemes. Calyx inferior, persistent, 4–5-toothed or -cleft, or 2-lipped. Corolla gamopetalous, hypogynous; limb more or less 2-lipped, rarely equal; lobes 4–5, imbricate. Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube, usually 4 and then often didynamous, sometimes 2 only; anther-cells separate or confluent. Ovary superior, of 2 connate deeply 2-lobed carpels and hence 4-partite, 4-celled; style simple, proceeding from between the lobes of the ovarv; stigma usually 2-fid; ovules solitary in each cell, erect, anatropous. Fruit enclosed in the persistent calyx, of 4 1-seeded nutlets. Seeds small, erect; albumen wanting or nearly so; radicle next the hilum.

Strong-scented perennial herbs; rootstock creeping, stoloniferous. Leaves opposite. Flowers small, often axillary and solitary in the New Zealand species, but in others frequently arranged in many-flowered whorls or clusters, which are often aggregated into terminal